I used to torture myself with this question. a few years ago I had an amazing breakthrough. I had joined a group of people who were doing a workshop called "The Artist's Way". I'm sure some of you have heard of it. anyhow duing one of the meetings a woman brought some sculptures she had done to show the group. She had scpted a metal crown and a scepter. I was absolutely floored. I realized that my greatest struggle wasn't that I wasn't an artist it was that I thoght god had made a mistake giving someone like me this awesome gifting and ability. I haad this incredible healing right there looking at this crown and scepter because they represent authority and I realized that God made the right choice in making me an artist. I was the one screwing it up. I told Him I was sorry and stopped being an artistic screwup instantly. Since then I've really become more able to create "at the drop of a hat." I actually enjoy doing art now. For most of my life though doing anything artistic was an all or nothing rollercoaster ride - now it's like walking on air.
on being an artist.. Yes, I feel I was given a gift, but that also gave me an obligation. I find that life keeps putting Art on the back burner for me. Sometimes the gift feels like a curse..yet, nothing makes me feel better than working at my art..once I get past the guilty feeling I have about what I should be doing (cleaning house yada,yada).. Does anyone else feel "guilty"?
Can't get enough, do enough......love it!
I eat, drink, sleep....art, art, art.....all the time.....LOL
Not me. It would certainly be swell if I could just turn it on like an electric fan, but that's very far from being the case. In fact one of my biggest problems arises from the fact that I work part-time and it's almost impossible for me to quickly mentally change from the state I need to be in for my job (scenic artist for a small production co.) to the VERY different state of mind in which I do my best work.
I also observe that I did, in fact, do my best work when I had long periods of time (months to years) during which I had few responsibilities and could concentrate full-time on painting, meditation, and observing my motif.
In my own mind, the difference between an artist and a hobbyist has nothing to do with source of income or volume of work. You might be a great artist even if you've only done a dozen paintings and never sold one (the American primitive Albert Pinkham Ryder comes to mind).
A hobbyist does arts or crafts as a recreational activity because they find the activity itself pleasant or relaxing. Normally the hobby does not interfere with their ability to lead a normal life or make a living.
An artist is compelled to make art, otherwise they become depressed or even suicidal. Their definition of themselves and their sense of self-worth is totally based on their notion of themselves as an artist. They will endure poverty and all sorts of other sordidness, loneliness, and sundry deprivations to continue making the art even if nobody wants it, and even though the process of making the art itself may be torturous and difficult in the extreme.
Speaking only for myself, being an artist (as distinct from a craftsman or hobbyist) is a fairly rare form of obsessive-compulsive neurosis that is very hard to get rid of, and of little, if any benefit to the afflicted individual.
Leonaardo de Veinci once spent 20 years on one single painting with out creating anything, just masyering the one painting, it was The Virgin of the Rock. He spent most his life trying to prove a man could fly with his own manpower, His Birdman invention.
Just because an artist only does one thing or creates only when in the mood does not defind that person as an artist want to be.
By your defanition at times, I am not a true artist. BS as far as I am concerned.
I have learned, over the years, differnt people think differnt ways and create at different speeds and for different reasons.
If you can create an image, feeling or inpire a thought at anytime, you are a creator of art, end of story.
If you can do this all the time at the drop of a hat, that doesn't proove your a true artist, it prooves your a work ahaulic.
There are times when I can fart and create a whole universe, then there are times when I get stuck. That's just life as a human. No one is gonna be creating at the drop of a hat all the time. that's rediculas.
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